Writing in itself is a complex competency (Berge et al., 2016). Writing in English as a Second Language naturally adds further complexity. When this writing in addition is expected to take place collaboratively, it requires a highly complex set of skills within writing, the language in question, and collaboration. Additionally, when a vast portion of writing in schools is mediated by digital technologies, this situation poses further demands on students’ skills required to master collaborative writing in a second language.

Collaborative writing in a second language (L2) is a young field, defined by Zhang & Plonsky (2020, p. 1) as “a task in which two or more learners interact with each other throughout the writing process to co-produce one single document”. For the purpose of this review L2 is used to refer to both second language and foreign language. The focus of research within the field has been on establishing the potential of the method, and variables that could impact this potential (Zhang & Plonsky, 2020). Technology used in collaborative writing in L2 has so far been a slightly overlooked topic in reviews. For example, two complementary reviews have been conducted in the field by Zhang et. al (2021) and Zhang and Plonsky (2020), focusing on computer-mediated collaborative writing and face-to-face collaborative writing in L2. Zhang et al. (2021) provide a list of technologies used in collaborative writing including number of studies and a percentage, while Zhang and Plonsky (2020) do not mention the technology used at all. Zhang et al. (2021) found that wiki and Google docs are the most frequently used technologies in collaborative writing but do not offer any analyses of what sort of use this is. Both Zhang et. al (2021) and Zhang and Plonsky (2020) report that English is the most researched language. Zhang et. al (2021) also point out that there is a broad variation in quantitative measurements conducted in the field and call for more consistent metrics. Both studies conclude that learners with lower proficiencies and non-adult participants are particularly under-researched, calling also for more research of the processes of collaborative writing.

Schools have in the last two decades increasingly become equipped with digital technology, writing is frequently practiced using these tools, and this makes it imperative that we examine how technology is used in collaborative writing and in second language as part of this. This scoping review aims at giving an overview of the current knowledge on collaborative writing in L2 set in junior and senior high school conducted in between the years 2010 and 2024. To address the issue, the following three research questions are asked:

RQ 1: What are the general characteristics of research literature on collaborative writing in digital environment when it comes to emerging topics, key characteristics, theoretical approaches, methods used and empirical findings?

RQ2: How is technology use addressed in these studies?

RQ 3: What research gaps and limitations can be identified? 

This study follows the guidelines for scoping review (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). Our review will systematize and analyze peer-reviewed English empirical and theoretical articles published between 2010 and 2025 on collaborative writing using digital tools in L2 classrooms. The review by Zhang et al. (2021) reports increasing interest in collaborative writing from 2010 with 6 publications in 2010 and 13 publications in 2011, also technological progress made sharing documents easier in this period, therefore this review addresses research after 2010. A search string including three elements covering equivalents and frequent synonyms (1) junior and senior high school students, (2) collaborative writing, and (3) English as a second language was used searching for relevant articles. Complete search string will be made available during the presentation at ECER 2025. Seven databases were searched: Academic Search Premier, Education Source, ERIC, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, PsychInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science. These databases were chosen for three reasons: (1) to access educational research, (2) to access material from a variety of fields as the research question touches different fields of research, and (3) with a special focus on linguistic research based on the results of trial searches that showed a wide body of research on collaborative writing in L2 is conducted by researchers within the field of applied linguistics. Titles, abstracts and key words of the first 200 articles were assessed with respect to inclusion and exclusion criteria by all three authors, thereafter the first screening was completed by the first author. The inclusion criteria for the review are (A) English as a second/foreign language, (B) English as a school subject, (C) junior and senior high school (D) collaborative writing process, (E) use of digital technology, (F) articles from peer-reviewed journals, and (G) English language. Studies where target categories are mixed with other categories and cannot be isolated, work that focuses on writing without collaboration, and book chapters and grey literature are excluded. The second and third author screened all articles that the first author was unsure of and each screened also 100 randomly chosen articles to test the reliability of the first screening. The process was conducted in the software Rayyan. Full text reading of included articles was shared between all three authors, this included discussions of notes documented in an Excel Sheet. Articles that the authors were unsure about were read by at least two of the authors.

This is work in progress but is planned to be completed in good time before the ECER 2025 conference. Currently, we are conducting in-depth reading, collaboratively analyzing emerging topics, key characteristics, theoretical approaches, methods used and empirical findings. We expect to provide an overview of how collaborative writing and digital technologies are conceptualized and studied, identify research gaps in the existing literature on collaborative writing with digital technologies in English as a second language in junior and senior high school classrooms. Preliminary findings in similarity with Zhang et al. (2021) and Zhang & Plonsky (2020) document a very limited body of research in junior high school, lack of research on use of Microsoft Word in collaborative writing, while wikis and Google docs are frequently addressed, writing processes such as pre-task planning, modelling and composition processes are also scarcely addressed in the research.

Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 Berge, K. L., Evensen, L. S., & Thygesen, R. (2016). The Wheel of Writing: A model of the writing domain for the teaching and assessing of writing as a key competency. The Curriculum Journal, 27(2), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1129980 Zhang, M., Gibbons, J., & Li, M. (2021). Computer-mediated collaborative writing in L2 classrooms: A systematic review. Journal of Second Language Writing, 54, 100854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2021.100854 Zhang, M., & Plonsky, L. (2020). Collaborative writing in face-to-face settings: A substantive and methodological review. Journal of Second Language Writing, 49, 100753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2020.100753